Article taken from BBC News.
A taxi driver whose social media posts were a “catalyst” for riots that broke out after three girls were stabbed to death in Southport has been jailed seven and a half years.
Andrew McIntyre, 39, set up a Telegram channel called “Southport Wake Up” in the immediate aftermath of the knife attack at a children’s dance class in the Merseyside town on 29 July.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the case involved a “sinister aspect” of violence which took place in parts of the UK last summer.
McIntyre, of Rufford, near Ormskirk, Lancashire, had admitted encouraging violent disorder and possession of a knife in an earlier hearing.
The Telegram channel was identified by the group Hope Not Hate as a “catalyst for and origin of a series of posts” concerning incidents of violence, prosecutor Arthur Gibson said.